Polishing device for deeply curved surfaces



Aug. 13, 1957 W. E. LINDEN ET AL POLISHING'DEVICE FOR DEEPLY CURVEDSURFACES Filed Jan. 5, 1955 3 Sheets-Sheet l INVENTOR WARREN E LINDEN 8WALTER E lbw/VON BY 7% a;

-Aug. 13, 1957 r w. E. LINDEN EI'AL ,3

POLISHING DEVICE FOR DEEPLY CURVEb SURFACES Filed Jan. 6, 1955 3Sheets-Sheet 2 Fig 4 IN VEN TOR.

WARREN E. LINDEN 8 BY WALTER E. LENNON Aug. 1957 w. E. LINDEN ETAL2,802,311

POLISHING DEVICE FOR DEEPLY CURVE!) SURFACES 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed Jan.5, 1955 INVENTORS WARREN E. LIND WALTER E. LENN BY F SP/QK a 5 UnitedStates Patent fiice Patented Aug. 13, 1957 POLISHING DEVICE FOR DEEPLYCURVED SURFACES Warren E. Linden, New Hartford, and Walter E. Lennon,Utica, N. Y., assignors to Utica Drop Forge & Tool Corporation, acorporation of New York Application January 6, 1955, Serial No. 480,1461 Claim. (Cl. 51-140 This invention relates to surface polishing devicesin general, and relates more particularly to a belt polishing machine topolish the convex and concave surfaces of a longitudinal workpiece.

An object of the invention is to provide a polishing machine having atravelling ribbon of abrasive material oriented and guided to saidmachine to conform to and polish deeply formed convex and concavesurfaces.

Another object of the invention is to provide a frame for driving anddirecting an abrasive ribbon, the frame providing drive and storagemeans for the ribbon along said frame, and converting the longitudinaldirection of the ribbon to a transverse direction at the work head ofthe frame.

Other objects and a fuller understanding of the invention may be had byreferring to the following description and claim, taken in conjunctionwith the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure 1 is a diagrammatic side view illustration of a pair of framemembers with work head portions embodying the principles of thisinvention, together with a workpiece held by a suitable indexing andreciprocating holder device;

Figure 2 is a view similar to that of Figure 1 with the frame memberspivoted to close the work head portions upon a workpiece;

Figure 3 is a top view of the work head area of the polishing device asviewed from above in Figure 2;

Figure 4 is a view as taken along line 4-4 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a fragmentary side view of the closed work head portions ofFigure 4; and,

Figure 6 is a diagrammatic illustration of the working relationshipbetween the abrasive indexing and workpiece reciprocating members, asemployed in the preferred embodiment of this invention.

The drawings are intended to set forth a more or less diagrammaticillustration of the principles embodied in this invention withoutresorting to illustration and description of any particular associatedmachinery or device old and well known to the industry. Frame numbers11) and 11 are pivoted about a pivot 12 in order to provide a scissorstype of closing action. Work heads 13 and 14 carried at the forward endof the frames and 11 constitute the major portion of the novel andimproved invention. Preferably, a hydraulic cylinder is mounted to applyforce in the direction of arrows 28 and 29 to close the work heads 13and 14 with respect to one another and with respect to a work piecepresented therebetween, and in the direction opposite said arrows 28 and29 to reverse the procedure. Accordingly, the frames 10 and 11 operateon a scissors principle. The work heads 13 and 14 are provided to holdand present abrasive material for the purpose of operating a work pieceby relative reciprocal movement. Accordingly, abrasive material must befed to the heads 13 and 14.

In the preferred method of operating the machine, supare provided totake-up the used ribbon returning from the heads 13 and 14. Any suitablemeans of drive may be employed to drivingly rotate the take-up rolls 32and 32-A, and accordingly dotted lines 33 and 34 illustrate aninterconnection with the end of frames 10 and 11 to thereby designate adriving force on such rolls. The drive may be continuousror intermittentas desired, but such take-up rolls being driven will draw the ribbonsthrough the apparatus, and therefore greatly simplify the abrasiveribbon feed. Sincethe only requirement is that the abrasive ribbon begradually renewed in the work heads 13 and 14, an intermittent ratchetdrive take-up is quite satisfactory.

The work pieces to be polished or sanded may conveniently be held by areciprocating piston and cylinder construction and therefore rapidlyreciprocated by conventional control means between the forward positionillustrated in phantom outline and the retracted position illustrated infull lines in this Figure 6.

The drawings illustrate a frame 10 and a frame 11 pivotally joinedtogether by the pivot 12. Frame 10, according to this invention, isprovided with a work head 13, and the frame 11 with the work head 14.The relationship of the work heads 13 and 14 with respect to the frames10 and 11 is best set forth in Figures 1 and g 2 of the drawings. Alsocarried by each frame 10 and 11 is a drive and guide mechanismpositioned on the side of the pivot 12 opposite from the work heads 13and 14. Such guide and drive mechanism may comprise any suitable rollerguide and power mechanism adapted to impart movement of a ribbon ofabrasive material longitudinally of the frame to and from the work heads13 and 14. Such a ribbon is indicated by the reference characters 15 and16 in the drawings. The drive and guide mechanism is provided at theparticular location indicated for the purpose of placing such mechanismrearwardly of the work heads in an out of the way position and to reducethe bulk of the mechanism at the work head ends.

The placement of drive and guide means at the rearward portion of theframes with respect to the work heads, requires that the abrasiveribbons 15 and 16 extend longitudinally along the frames 10 and 11. Ithas been found that in the prior method of using rollers or pads at theend of the frames in place of the work heads 13 and 14, the abrasiveribbons 15 and 16 are difiicult to shape down into deep concave surfacesor over short radius convex surfaces. Accordingly, this inventionprovides for changing of the normal longitudinal direction of travel ofthe abrasive ribbons 15 and 16 from the longitudinal path to atransverse path with respect to such longitudinal travel from the driveand guide mechanism. In the illustrated embodiment of the invention,such change ofdirection is accomplished by providing the heads 13 and 14with turnboard direction converter rods 20 and 21. According to thedirection of movement of the abrasive belts, one of these rods convertsthe longitudinal travel of the ribbon to a lateral path and the otherconverts the ribbon back from the lateral path into the longitudinalpath. The lateral work path in the area of the work heads is produced bypulley rods 22, 23, 24, and 25. Such rods cause the abrasive ribbon totravel in a substantially closed annular path which constitutes theactive work path of the ribbon.

As best illustrated in Figure 4 of the drawings, resilient pads 26 and27 are provided within the annular path of the heads 13 and 14. Suchpads form a backup for the abrasive ribbon. Because of the resilientnature of the pads they will form to the curvature of the workpiecesurface and both guide the ribbon in a path closely adhering to thesurface of the workpiece and provide pressure for eflicient polishing.

In the drawings, a workpiece 17 is represented by a typical jet bladebucket having a deep curved surface extending transversely of thelongitudinal blade. In order to hold the workpiece 17 to receive thepolishing action, and to aid in the polishing action, a holder 18 isprovided which both clampsthe workpiece andreciprocatesthe workpiecebetween the relatively limited area of active polishing produced by theribbons 15 and 16. In actual practice a plurality of such holders 18 aremounted upon an indexing table in order that the workpieces may beloaded and unloaded from the machine at a convenient station and will beindexed around the table to the polishing heads before being returned infinished condition to the loading stations.

Althoughthe invention has been described in its preferred form with acertain degree of particularity, it is understood that the presentdisclosure of the preferred form has been made only by way of exampleand that numerous changes in the details, of construction andthecombination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to withoutdeparting from the spirit and the scope of the invention as hereinafterclaimed.

What is claimed is: i

A polishing machine for polishing curved surface workpieces, comprisinga first and second track system, a first and second abrasive ribbondirected by said first and second track system respectively against thecurved surfaces, each said track system having a longitudinal frame witha work head portion, each longitudinal frame having a drive and guidemeans directing an abrasive ribbon to said work head portion of thatframe and return along a first course, each said work head portionhaving guide track means directing said ribbon in a substantiallyannular path transverse to the longitudinal frame, first turnboardsurface means converting said first direction of the ribbon to thetransverse work path, second turnboard surface means converting saidribbon travel in the transverse work path back to the said firstdirection for return to the guide and drive means of the said driveportion, a resilient pad carried by each said head portion internally ofsaid annular path, said pad serving as a backup for said ribbon andhaving the facility of conforming to the shape of a curved workpiecewhen pressed against said workpiece to thereby hold said ribbon insurface contact with a workpiece having a form other than the form ofthe belt path, a workpiece holder adapted to hold a workpiece andreciprocate said workpiece in a path transverse to the surfaces thereofto be polished, and pivot means joining said first and second tracksystem longitudinal frames for mutual pivotable closing of the work headportions upon the workpiece, whereby polishing action is accomplished bylateral movement of the ribbons in surface contact with the workpiece asthe workpiece isreciprocated in a fixed path between the moving ribbons.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

